Keeping a symptom diary

Keeping a food and symptom diary for IBS may be invaluable for some people, but it's not recommended for everyone. Keeping a diary can make it easier for you to work with your dietitian and health team. It can help you to pinpoint your triggers, both food and non-food related. Your diary can be kept as a record to show how your symptoms and treatment are progressing.

It can be as basic or as detailed as you like, but it needs to be in a format that's easy for you to do, for as long as you need it. One of the simplest ways to do this is to keep digital notes on your phone. There is also a handy diary function within the Monash app. If you prefer to put pen to paper then our Food, Mood and Poop diary will help you to track the following daily:

• Food intake
• Symptom tracker
• Stress levels
• Mood triggers
• Bowel movements
• Menstrual cycle
• Weekly and monthly goal-setting and progress reviews

This brings together the key pieces of information that help show you and your healthcare team the bigger picture in terms of your IBS.

It can seem a bit of a chore at first, but once you get into the habit, it's really quite fascinating. Seeing the patterns emerge that influence your symptoms day to day can help you feel more in control. Once you start to see improvements in your IBS, it can be therapeutic and motivating to look back on your progress over time. As impossible as it may sound to you at the beginning of your journey, you have every chance of getting to a place where you actually forget how bad your symptoms were and how they affected you.

Is keeping a food diary right for me?

People with a history of disordered patterns, thinking and behaviour around food may find keeping a food diary to be triggering or even harmful for their recovery. Even if you've never previously identified issues in this area, becoming focused on recording your food and symptoms can quickly become addictive and begin to spiral out of control.

If you're not sure that documenting your food intake is right for you, I encourage you to discuss this with your healthcare team before you begin. Likewise, for people with no history of food-related disorders, it's still very important to monitor how this process affects you. If you begin to notice certain negative thoughts, compulsions, worrying or spiralling behaviours then please discuss these with a professional.

Shifting the focus from prioritising our eating habits to include the multiple factors that can affect us can help to show that the issue is so much more than food. Exploring our mood alongside the food may be beneficial, but only when it can be done without judgement or risk to our mental, emotional and physical health.

If you're at all worried about the idea of food tracking, then keeping a symptoms only diary may be the better option.

Have you recently been told you have IBS and wonder what happens next? The rest of the posts in this series can help you get started.

Are you a diary fan? Share your tips and techniques in the comments below.